The world will keep going
by L.E. Lamkin
Summary: Post S6/S3 Crossover. Buffy and Angel meet in their dreams and discuss their plights. (For all you B/A 'shippers, you may enjoy this...LOL) Read and review, por favor.


**Author's Notes**:  Hey, all.  Here's a one-shot ficlet about Buffy and Angel.  It takes place shortly after both current seasons (6 and 3).  I hope everyone enjoys this.  
    
    **Disclaimer**:  The characters of _Buffy_ and _Angel_ belong to UPN, Sandollar Television, Mutant Enemy Productions, The WB, Greenwalt Productions (?), Joss Whedon, David Greenwalt, and all of their great writers and producers.  I'm not stealing anything, merely borrowing them for my own little ramblings.  Please don't sue.  J
    
    -"The world will keep going."-
    
    Buffy stared at her bedside alarm clock with bleary eyes.  It was nearly 
    
    four in the morning, and she'd just gotten in from a long patrol of 
    
    town.  Everything had seemed so empty…so strange and surreal.  It was 
    
    like Sunnydale had been replaced with a new place, a place Buffy wasn't 
    
    quite so comfortable with yet.  
    
    So much had happened not too long ago, and Buffy was still adjusting.  
    
    She'd been nearly killed by a gun-wielding maniac, and Tara hadn't been 
    
    so lucky – she had been hit by a stray bullet.  Willow had gone mad with 
    
    rage and tried to end the world after the death of her lover.  Now she 
    
    was gone, with Giles, away in England.  Buffy didn't know what was 
    
    happening, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know.  And Spike…she didn't 
    
    even want to get herself started on thoughts of him.  
    
    Everything was much too muddled.  At first he'd been a friend, a 
    
    confidant.  And then, it had become something more…or had it?  Buffy 
    
    still wasn't sure.  But then he'd done the unthinkable, and attempted 
    
    to…
    
    No, don't go there, Buffy insisted to herself, shutting her eyes 
    
    tightly.  She couldn't think about Spike.  Not about anything.
    
    Right then, she just wanted to…sleep.  
    
    She snuggled lower into her covers, embracing their comfort and warmth.  
    
    The simplistic nature of falling asleep was comforting for the Slayer, 
    
    and she suddenly felt warm and nurtured….home.  She was okay now, and 
    
    safe.  She could go to a place where she didn't have to think about the 
    
    horrors of her world.  The world of demons and slaying and death and 
    
    destruction.
    
    Within moments, the conscious world faded away. 
    
    Buffy found herself standing on a high plateau, staring down at thick, 
    
    bright green forestry.  A slight wind toiled her honey colored hair, 
    
    causing a few stray strands to flitter before her eyes like tiny grass 
    
    stalks being tossed back and forth by wayward children playing in an 
    
    abandoned field.
    
    The sun was just beginning to set, but the darkness did not feel cold 
    
    against her skin.  Neither did the arms that were suddenly wrapping 
    
    around her waist, barely covered by a thin sheath of material made out 
    
    of lacy satin that hugged her body like a second skin.  Buffy moved her 
    
    head backwards and leaned against the sturdy chest attached to the 
    
    strong arms hugging her body tightly.
    
    "I didn't think you'd show," Buffy murmured, watching the sun set in the 
    
    far distance, slowly dipping beneath the hills and vallies.
    
    "I wouldn't miss this for the world," the man behind her whispered into 
    
    her ear.  Buffy smiled, and slowly turned around, staying within his 
    
    tight embrace.  
    
    "It was so hard, Angel…," the Slayer whispered back, carressing her old 
    
    lover's beautifully chiseled features.  The souled vampire looked down 
    
    upon her with warm eyes, eyes that spoke of many pasts, and of countless 
    
    futures.  Eyes that had lived for centuries, and would live for many 
    
    more.  "So hard…without you…"
    
    "Don't worry…I'm here now," Angel told her.
    
    "How is this possible?," Buffy asked, eyeing him with a lost look of 
    
    weariness, a look that spoke volumes.  She, too, had lived so much more 
    
    than any other person, forced to grow up faster than anyone her age. 
    
    "Does it matter?," Angel replied.
    
    Buffy lay her head on Angel's chest once again, sighing.  
    
    "It's so cold in here," Buffy whispered, feeling her teeth beginning to 
    
    chatter.  She pulled away from Angel's chest, and felt the confines of 
    
    the ocean weighing down on her shoulders.  She was trapped, trapped 
    
    inside a coffin.  A watery death, one that would last forever, for all 
    
    of eternity.
    
    "No!," Buffy cried, tears springing forth.  "No, this can't be real!  
    
    Not again!"
    
    "This is my world, now," Angel intoned.  Aghast, Buffy pulled away from 
    
    her lover's arms and found herself staring out into the darkest depths 
    
    of the Pacific.  A few fish swam by, carelessly forgetting those they 
    
    passed before they ever really even saw them.  "We can't 
    
    escape…I'm…trapped.  My son…he…."
    
    Buffy turned and faced Angel, face drawn and pale.
    
    "Your…son?," she whispered.
    
    "Connor…," Angel said, looking down at his hands.  "I hit him with these 
    
    hands.  Hit him in the face…And now I have to pay.  This is the price I 
    
    have to pay for what I did to him.  I lost him…"
    
    "You can't give up," Buffy told him.  "You can't just expect to stay 
    
    here forever!  You can't quit!  There's a…a world out there!  A whole 
    
    world that needs you!  It needs us both, Angel…"
    
    The words seemed to resonate within herself.  Was she talking to 
    
    herself, or Angel?  She wasn't so sure anymore.  Nothing made sense.
    
    "How….how was it possible?," Buffy asked, lingering closer to Angel, the 
    
    coldness increasing with each step.  As she drew closer, the metallic 
    
    coffin slowly underwent a metamorphosis, changing into a dark room, lit 
    
    by the moon.  Buffy watched as a petite blond woman overtook Angel with 
    
    her arms, kissing him passionately.  In horror, she realized the 
    
    impossibility of the situation…
    
    Darla.  It was Darla…and they were…
    
    "No…I….how….?"
    
    "You can't understand how it began," Angel told her quietly.  Buffy 
    
    backed away in a hurry, and bumped into a pair of arms.  She spun around 
    
    and standing there was Willow, consumed by dark magick…her hair…her 
    
    eyes…black.  Black as the darkest night, a twisted grin on her lips.
    
    "Miss me?," she asked.  Buffy backed away in terror.
    
    "No…not again….no!," Buffy cried, trying to shake away the images of her 
    
    friend.  She turned around and found Angel standing all alone, looking 
    
    beaten and worn.  Helpless.  Crying out, Buffy turned back to Willow…she 
    
    lay on the ground, whimpering, naked, alone…empty.
    
    "I don't know where I am anymore," Buffy whispered, clutching her head.
    
    "Shhh, shh," Angel cooed, cradling Buffy in his arms.  The Slayer looked up into the vampire's eyes, tears spilling down her cheeks.  "It's all right.  Don't worry."
    
    They were back on the plateau, and the sun was just beginning to rise.
    
    "Angel, the sun -," Buffy started, getting ready to find shelter.  Angel cooed to her once more and rubbed her bare arms, smiling down at her.
    
    "Everything's fine, trust me," Angel told her.  "We're safe, now."
    
    "Angel, how can this be real?," Buffy asked, softly carressing his face.  "I thought that I killed you?"
    
    "I will never die," Angel said, looking away.  "My mind is free to wander the world…I have a lot of time to spend with myself now.  Now that I'm being punished.  We're inside your mind, Buffy.  I came to you because I could feel your pain…"
    
    "I just want to be alive," Buffy whispered into the lapels of Angel's silky shirt.  "I just want to feel…"
    
    They allowed their lips to touch, ever so softly.  This kiss lingered in the air, not quite manifested, but the passion behind it was tangible.  They pressed their bodies closer together, and the kiss suddenly transformed into a hurricane of emotions, tumbling, churning…
    
    "I could stay here forever," Buffy said softly, taking a breath.
    
    "Then why don't you?," Angel asked, running a finger across her cheekbone.  Buffy looked down at her chest and saw tiny red droplets beginning to appear at the top of her cleavage.  She looked back up into Angel's eyes, afraid but…curious.
    
    "You've tasted me once," Buffy said softly.
    
    "I could taste you a thousand times," Angel answered.  They kissed once more, and Buffy allowed her hands to roam freely; hair, skin, muscle, all of it coiled and tensed and full of every emotion a human could never feel in a hundred lifetimes.
    
    "Can't you come back to me?," Buffy asked breathlessly.  "I can…save you!  I can bring you back, back to where you belong.  With me…"
    
    "It's not possible," Angel said sadly.  "You can't save me.  That is not part of your destiny."
    
    "I don't care," Buffy said, in tears.  "Angel, I need you.  With…without you, everything has become so awful and messed up.  I can't find anyone who is right for me…My friends have barely talked to me in a year.  My mom…she's gone.  I'm all alone…And Spike…"
    
    "Spike," Angel repeated the name grimly.  "You've been…with him."
    
    "How…how did you…?," Buffy murmured, completely taken by surprise.
    
    "We're in your mind, Buffy," Angel said simply, as if that should explain everything.  Suddenly, the maginificent plateau transformed into an old, crumbling house.  The slowly rising sun transformed into pale shafts of milky moonlight.  With Angel at her side, Buffy watched the memory of Spike and herself devouring eachother's bodies with carnivorous need.
    
    She hadn't remembered that night being so…primal.
    
    "It wasn't anything real!," Buffy cried, looking to Angel, hoping for some sort of understanding.  "I…I was lonely.  I needed to feel something…"
    
    "You've been through hell," Angel noted.
    
    "Yeah…," Buffy agreed as the images of Spike and the dilapidated house slowly disentigrated into nothing but a dark, endless black void.  "I don't know.  Maybe it's over.  I'm ready to just start life over again.  I just want things back the way they were…"
    
    "That will never happen," Angel told her, his voice echoing in the endless void.  "The world is ever-changing.  Ever-evolving.  Nothing stops for any one person.  The world will keep going.  It will leave you behind if it has to."
    
    "Is that what happened to you?," Buffy asked tearfully.
    
    "I wasn't wanted in this world anymore," Angel answered, looking away.
    
    "That isn't true," Buffy insisted, shaking her head swiftly.  "I won't believe that.  Angel, you can't give up.  You just can't…The world might move on, but people like us, we can catch up.  We just need to open our eyes, and…and look.  Look at the world, what it has to offer us.  The people that matter to us, everything…"
    
    "Isn't it about time you went back to your friends?," Angel asked.
    
    "I'll stay with you as long as you need me," Buffy promised.  She embraced him once more and kissed his cheek ever so softly.
    
    And so they sat, in silence, holding eachother closely.
    
    _I don't ever wanna wake up_, Buffy thought to herself contentedly.
    
    -end-


End file.
